Classes are held every week that there is a regular platform.  On the Sundays when there is a society festival, children stay with their families for the celebration.  We put effort into making festivals child friendly. 

On regular Sunday mornings, children start in the main room with the adults they came with for introductory music and welcome.  A “story for children of all ages” is read.  Children are invited to the front of the room to see the pictures better.  When the story is finished, the children leave to go to their respective classes.  Parents are welcome, but not required to walk their children to their classes.  

Each class starts with a greeting and sort of class meeting that allows all participants to check in about how their week has gone and maybe ponder a question or report on an ethical action they saw or engaged in.   Classes end at 12:15.  Parents/guardians are asked to come th their chid’s classroom to pick them up and maybe get to see what they have been doing. 

Once a month, the classes gather to engage in a service project.  This year we are hoping that some of the youth will initiate and organize service projects of interest to them.  Some traditional projects we have done are making lunches for homeless shelters, making fleece scarves and blankets for needy populations, cleaning up the playground and collecting for  UNICEF. 

This year we have planned for each class to have 6 sessions on Ethical Culture, how to describe it, the history of the movement, outstanding people and discussion of the values we encourage.

Given the service projects, Ethical Culture sessions and festivals, each class will have an average of 2 classes a month on the chosen curriculum for their age level. 

Primary Class: Activities from the Heartwood Ethics curriculum will be presented for the preschool thru second grade group.  This curriculum uses carefully chosen children’s literature to teach children universal attributes of good character that form the foundations of community.  Courage, loyalty, justice, respect, hope, honesty and love are the targeted attributes. 

The books presented, celebrate the imagination and adventures of young children, with a focus on realistic stories about children's interactions with the widening world around them. Stories from every continent (except Antarctica) help young children become familiar with the continents depicted on the map mat and the broad outlines of the world in which they live. Several books reinforce respect for the environment, highlighting the diversity of nature, from polar bears and owls to thunderstorms and African savannahs. Other stories celebrate special talents and abilities young children are beginning to demonstrate, such as drama, dance, problem solving, and caring for others.  After the books are read, discussion and related activities provide further exploration of ideas and hands on activities  bring them to life.

Elementary Class:  A newly developed curriculum called Heart Talk for Kids will be presented to this class for third thru fifth graders.  Heart Talk for Kids teaches the concepts, principles and skills of Non-violent Communication (Rossenberg) thru activities that emphasize movement, crafts, songs, games and time spent in nature.  As the authors Veronica Lassen and Debbie Grieb state: 

"Observations, feelings, needs and requests are explored. Succeeding weeks help the children practice communicating with an emphasis on connecting with themselves and others. We explore anger, gratitude, conflict resolution, empathy, and take a look at historical and current peacemakers. And what's all this learning without a celebration? The final lesson celebrates the real possibility of world peace through how we understand and communicate with people."

Intermediate Class: Activities to develop Media Literacy will be presented to this class for sixth thru 8th graders.  The focus will be on five key questions and application of them to a variety of media. 

-Who created this message?

-What creative techniques were used to attract my attention?

-How might different people understand this message differently than me?

-What values, lifestyles and points of view are represented in, or omitted   from this message/

-Why is this message being sent?

In our media saturated world youth need to apply critical thinking skills to the media that surround us.  This ability will allow them to use media to act responsibly, rather than be acted upon and in this way to be better citizens. 

Advanced Class:  Critical Thinking About Ethical Issues will be the focus of this discussion based class for students in 8th grade and up.  The goal is for students to apply critical thinking skills to ethical

issues that arise in current news events. There are significant ethical dimensions to most of the stories that make headlines, but these are often ignored or minimized in the coverage of these stories, and critical thinking about these issues is rare. The course will both teach critical thinking skills and raise important ethical questions about the major events and issues that affect our world.

Youth of Ethical Societies/YES Group: Youth of the Society are invited to attend the national youth conference sponsored by the American Ethical Union.  This year’s YES conference will take place in St. Louis.  As in the past, NoVES will have a chaperoned delegation from our society attending.

Other youth group activities will be planned as the group determines interests.  These may include social and service activities. 

Future of Ethical Society activities are available to students beyond high school level.  Please refer to the American Ethical Union for contact information.